April 1, 2019 BLAKE NEWSLETTER - VOLUME 8, ISSUE 2 Blake Newsletter Table of Contents 1. Blake Pedigree Chart – Blake Museum at Bridgwater, Somerset 2. Blake Surname Study - Progress 3. Blake autosomal DNA Study at FT DNA 4. Andover, Hampshire, England Parish Registers 1. Blake Pedigree Chart – Blake Museum at Bridgwater, Somerset. This is a recent addition to their website: http://www.bridgwatermuseum.org.uk/ The Blake Museum has given me permission to put these charts in the newsletter so I will continue with some of these Blake family lines. Many of the Blake families with roots in the New England states are tracing back to William Blake of Dorchester Massachusetts. A number of Blake genealogists have written up their studies on these many Blake lines coming down from William Blake and Agnes (B[o or a]nd, Thorne?) Blake. One particular paper published in The American Genealolgist Volume 74, Issue 1, 15-28, 1999, and entitied “Two Somerby Frauds or ‘Placing the Flesh on the Wrong Bones’” by Paul C. Reed. In one of his footnotes, “In his [Horatio Gates Somerby] account of the purported ancestry of the immigrant William Blake of Corchester, Massachusetts, Somerby linked three apparently unrelated Blake families. After falsifying the origin of the immigrant, Somerby fabricated earlier fraudulent connections by making Humphrey Blake, ancestor of the Blake family of Over Stowey, Somerset, a brother of the Nicholas Blake of Andover who died in 1547. Somerby then fabricated a parentage for Humphrey and Nicholas, making their 1 April 1, 2019 BLAKE NEWSLETTER - VOLUME 8, ISSUE 2 father out to be one William Blake, and their mother to be Mary, daughter of Humphrey Coles of C. Somerset. Then he asserted that this William was a son of an earlier William whom Somerby (falsely) connects back into the ancient Blaage alias Blake family who lived at Calne, Wiltshire.” I have written about this fraudulent connection on my blog a number of times. My line descends from the Nicholas Blake of Andover whose father is, I believe, Richard Blake of Enham who left his will dated 12 Apr 1522; his father Robert’s will was dated 16 Dec 1521 (likely also of Enham as he mentions the parish Church there). Nicholas does not mention a brother Humphrey but does indeed mention his family members. Ancestry DNA is now producing ThruLines as well as DNA Circles (no longer updated). As it turns out, having used these ThruLines quite heavily the last couple of weeks, I am certainly happy with this addition overall. The drawback remains that errors in family trees can now flow through these ThruLines giving me attachments to ancestors that do not bear scrutiny with the actual records. But I can say that overall the addition of ThruLines is a bonus to research bringing together matches that are true and having examined four sets of siblings (my own) ThruLines I am seeing some really good results that are benefitting my research. On the plus side, you can now write to the individuals that are attaching to a particular line and discuss the possibility of working together to clear up the mystery since individuals are matching in order to be there on the ThruLine but the match as shown does not bear scrutiny, in the case of my Blake line, I know the husband of my 2x great grandfather John Blake’s sister Mary. She married William Heath and they had a large family and now in 2019 I match a number of their descendants thus proving the connection. She did not marry anyone else so any attachments to her, with a different spouse, as a proven daughter of Thomas Blake and Sarah (Coleman) Blake are probably inaccurate. However, if your ancestry is going back to that area right around Andover then likely we are matching on another line. But with that slight diversion I return again to William Blake of Dorchester Massachusetts and Paul Reed’s article in The American Genealogist. Fortunately we subscribe to The American Genealogist and can look back at some of these interesting articles written on the Blake family (and in the case of my husband heavily into Kipp-Link research also his families). 2 April 1, 2019 BLAKE NEWSLETTER - VOLUME 8, ISSUE 2 I will discuss the parentage of William Blake of Dorchester Massachusetts using records available to me. The publication “Increase Blake of Boston, his Ancestors and Descendants, with a full account of William Blake of Dorchester and his Five Children” was compiled by Francis E Blake (1839 – 1916) and published in 1898 at Boston, Massachusetts. The records had been accumulated by Reverend Charles M Blake. Francis E Blake is likely descendant of James Blake b 30 Apr 1688 at Dorchester Massachusetts and died 4 Dec 1750 also at Dorchester. James and his wife Waitstill Simpson had four children including James Blake b 15 Oct 1716 at Dorchester (died 5 Jan 1803 also at Dorchester). This James married Mary Pinson and they had several children including James Blake b15 Feb 1740 at Charlestown Massachusetts died 29 Aug 1803 at Boston Massachusetts. This James married Lydia Dana and they had a number of children including Pynson Blake who married Sarah Dana and their son was Francis Everett Blake (1839-1916). The James Blake b 1688 is likely the son of James b 27 Apr 1642 at Pitminster Somerset and son of the emigrant William Blake and his wife Agnis (Band or Bond, Thorne?) Blake. I have not proven this line myself and have copied it from information found online and it serves only to show that Francis E Blake who compiled the book was likely related to the William Blake family of Dorchester Massachusetts. The Reverend Charles M Blake is said to be descendant of Edward Blake youngest son of the emigrant William Blake but no detailed genealogy (Francis E Blake mentions on page 36 of his publication that John Blake (b 17 Jul 1720 and married to Ann Richardson) was his ancestor and John likely the son of Ebenezer (b 28 Sep 1709) married to Petronella Peck, with the father of Ebenezer as Jonathan b 5 Jul 1672 Boston and son of Edward Blake and Patience Pope) is available to prove that line. He, however, went back to Somerset and met with another John Blake there who shared material with him for the Blake family of Pitminster. The actual descent of these two gentleman is not pertinent to the story. I wish to look back from William Blake of Dorchester Massachusetts to England and the charts which have been made available by the Blake Museum. At some point during the late 1800s both Francis E Blake and the Reverend Charles M Blake appeared to have met with a John Blake in Somerset. When I asked who had created this particular Blake Chart I did not learn a particular name. I am quite curious if the individual with whom they met/corresponded did indeed also create this chart. It is basically in the same handwriting. It is in the style of writing of the late 1800s into the 1900s. It appears to have been created in one time period. 3 April 1, 2019 BLAKE NEWSLETTER - VOLUME 8, ISSUE 2 Chart 1 is the most interesting with regard to this William Blake (this is a slightly cropped image). Looking at this cropped version you can readily see a line coming down from Humphrey Blake third from the top and in the second column from the right. This line continues down to John Blake and then to William Blake of Pitmister and finally down once again to his son William Blake who eventually emigrates to the Massachusetts Colony. Cropping it once again just to make it more useful to the discussion, we have: 4 April 1, 2019 BLAKE NEWSLETTER - VOLUME 8, ISSUE 2 William Blake of Pitminster married to Agnis Band, widow, is shown as being of Pitminster and marrying there but dying in Dorchester Massachusetts Colony. The children of this couple are listed (chart preceding) as John, Anne, William, Edward and 5 April 1, 2019 BLAKE NEWSLETTER - VOLUME 8, ISSUE 2 James (and that corresponds to the children as they were known in the Massachusetts Colony. I will not refer to the children of this couple at all as my interest is in looking back to Somerset where William and Agnis Blake are said to have emigrated from in the 1630s. I did check Family Search to see if the images for the Pitmister Parish Registers are online yet but they can not be viewed. I suspect they may be up but not yet available. That means I have to rely on these various researchers for the records for Pitminster to tentatively look at this Blake line. The Chart lists the parents of William Blake of Pitminster (baptized 10 Jul 1594) as William Blake and Anne (unknown). Another site unfortunately now gone from the internet had been prepared by a local (Somerset) researcher and was quite interesting. Although I did not agree with all of the links, the early work I was informed had been done in the Registry Office and certainly there are many many records in the chart which was thus created (I copied it and made some changes that corrected inconsistencies with the online version). The birth of William Blake (father of the emigrant) was recorded as circa 1559 Over Stowey, Somerset. He was buried 13 Jun 1642 at Pitminster Somerset with his wife Anne being buried there 14 Aug 1644. The father of this William was said to be John Blake (the elder) and he appears to have had a younger brother named John Blake (the younger) both of whom had large families.